Endless Urgency is always free to read, because we are here to root out corruption, demand transparency, hold powerful people accountable, and keep following consequential stories long after the headlines move on. Everyone should be able to see it, share it, and understand what’s happening. And every subscription helps us reach further, build something lasting, and keep these urgent conversations alive. We’d love to have you with us. Just $8/month makes a huge difference:
Already a paid subscriber? Then like, share, and keep showing up in the comments. It matters more than you know.
Last night I went on Chris Cuomo’s show on NewsNation to debate Ben Ferguson about the economy. If you don’t know Ferguson, he’s Ted Cruz’s podcast co-host and one of the most prolific interrupters in cable news. He’s the king of it. He thinks he can neg you into submission by talking over you. We’ve tussled before, so I knew what I was walking into.
But this time he made me angry, and not for the usual reasons.
It wasn’t the lying, though there was plenty of it. Republicans keep lying mercilessly about the state of the economy and trying to gaslight people into believing everything is fine. Ferguson spent most of his time sounding unbelievably out of touch, desperately defending the president and the Republican Party ahead of midterms that, by every measurable account, look like a disaster for the GOP.
And it wasn’t the interrupting, though he did that constantly.
It was this: In the middle of our argument, while he rattled off economic statistics that weren’t even right, I tried to bring the conversation back to how regular Americans are actually experiencing this economy. People are telling us they can’t afford their goddamn grocery bill. That’s when he said two things I can’t stop thinking about.
First, he accused the American people of being “emotional” about the economy. As if your own personal economy isn’t emotional. As if the fear of not making rent is some kind of overreaction.
Second, he essentially called me anti-American. He said I was rooting for America to fail because I hate Donald Trump so much.
Both claims are idiotic and offensive. But they’re also a perfect example of what Donald Trump has done to the Republican Party. If you don’t agree with them, with their vision of the world, their policies, everything they want to do, then you must hate America. Because in their minds, they’re the only ones who love it. They wrap themselves in the flag and claim it belongs to them, not to us. They steal our symbols and our patriotism and use them to justify their corruption, their destruction, and their chaos.
I’m tired of it. So I called him out.
Here’s what I believe: The people who tell you that you hate America, who tell you you’re being emotional because you’re angry, they’re the ones who are anti-patriotic. You have every right to be angry. You can’t afford your groceries. You’ve watched the American dream slip further away. You’ve stood at the pump watching the numbers climb to $80, $90, $100 just to fill your tank.
The people dismissing that are the ones who hate this country. They hate the people of this country. They think so little of you that they believe they can get away with these lies. They treat you with that much disrespect.
Every decision made inside Trump’s administration gets made without a single thought about what it will do to your life, because they don’t fucking care about you. They care about themselves. Donald Trump cares about putting money in his pocket, not yours. Growing his net worth, not yours. And the hacks who defend him on TV care about their proximity to power, their influence, and their own contracts. They don’t care about you. They don’t care about me. They don’t even care about their own voters.
Endless Urgency is free to read—thanks to our paid subscribers. If this work has been useful to you, please help keep it available to everyone by becoming a paid subscriber. Just $8/month makes a huge difference:
That’s a big part of why the bottom is falling out for Republicans right now. They’re on defense, and not just in battleground states like Michigan. They’re on defense in red states. There’s a reason Democrats look competitive in Kansas, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and so many other places nobody could have imagined a year and a half ago. Republicans abandoned the very people who elected them, let alone the rest of us they still have a responsibility to serve. They simply don’t care. The arrogance is staggering. You can smell the desperation.
I’ve been stewing on this. Not in the way they want me to, not in some “ooh, I triggered a lefty” way. I’m stewing because I can’t believe people who claim to value public service, who say they care about others, would treat their fellow Americans like this.
I don’t show up to these conversations looking for a fight. I would be delighted to have a real, honest conversation about the economy and how we fix it, with anybody. When I started doing this, my motto was that I’d talk to anyone. I didn’t care how problematic they were or how big their audience was. I reach out to as many people as I can, including people I don’t particularly like. You’ve seen me do it. There’s a reason I had Clavicular on my show a few months ago. Pure love of the game, and a real belief that talking to each other is how we close these divides.
So I can’t get past it. The last arrow in your quiver is calling someone anti-American for telling the truth about the economy? You’re going to scream GDP numbers at me while people tell you they can’t pay their bills? It was ridiculous. Chris handled it well, like a lot of the folks who run these shows do. But it’s maddening in this moment.
During the segment, Chris put up a statistic showing the average American doesn’t have $1,000 saved for an emergency. That floored me.
I came home last night and my wife told me our washer and dryer are on their last legs and we’ll probably have to replace them. Thanks to the tariffs, that’s going to run about $1,500. We’ll be fine. We’re a dual-income household and we’ve done well for ourselves. But for the average person, that bill would be a wrecking ball. It would force impossible choices: the medication or the rent. Whether they can take a family trip this year.
That is not okay. And it is fundamentally anti-American to let so many people have so little and struggle so much while they work so damn hard.
You know they’re working hard. You’re working hard. And you deserve better than these people. You deserve better than the hacks who will call you anti-American for feeling what you feel, for seeing it with your own eyes, hearing it with your own ears, holding it in your own hands.
You deserve better. And if we elect a Democratic Congress in November, and we do it right, it’ll be the beginning of taking this country back.
With urgency,
—Mike
I tend to ask the wannabe Patriots “when and where did you serve “.
Go, Mike, for most of the rest of us who don't speak to a large crowd. I love your controlled passion, but also when you let loose after being dissed! I'm not a Republican but actually miss the ethics and compassion of John McCain (I'm from Arizona). I long for the real Republicans; some were my friends. What a mess this current administration is. Pray that it goes our way in the midterms.